Discover Training

The "Doorman fallacy" is the error of reducing a human role to its most simple, obvious task and thinking that by replicating this task you are replicating the entire role. e.g. replacing a doorman with an automatic door then losing all the real but "intagible" value that comes with having a human do the job.

I see a similar error all the time when people mistake a training program for coaching.

The obvious task of a coach is to write the plan; sets, reps, exercises, progressions etc. Easy to copy, generate or download for free.

The real job is everything that sits around the obvious bit:
⚾️ Noticing and ASKING how you are that day; energy, stress, pain, confidence, mood etc and adjusting accordingly.
🏀Picking the right dose: push hard, stick to the plan, or back off.
🏐Spotting the rep that looks fine today but will bite you in 6 weeks when a bad habit  has become your technique.
🏈Making small technical changes that turn a movement from an exercise into focused practice and real training.
🏉Adjusting cueing strategies and even inventing new, personal ones for when you're not understanding something.
⚽️Choosing what matters right now instead of what the plan says.
🥎Providing accountability so you'll show up and build consistency.
🎾Believing in you when your self-belief waivers, building confidence.

So yes, I can give you a program, you can get one for free on Google or AI and you can find any exercise on Youtube.

But none of that is coaching. Coaching is a relationship.

It’s the feedback, accountability, and the human "intangibles" that come with another person in the room.  A person who has the empathy to put you at the centre of the training and the skills to help you forge your own, unique path towards the goals that matter to you.

A program is a map. Coaching is an experienced guide, walking the path with you and teaching you how to navigate in the real world, through bad weather, impassible routes, detours, bad decisions, and unexpected events.

It's an arm around your shoulder and a voice saying "c'mon I'll show you".


📷

"Be strong to be helpful".

Campbell Letham (my Grandpa and army PT during WW2) and Georges Hèbert. Two men who have probably had the biggest influence on how I think about training; most easily summed up by Hèbert's motto, quoted above.

If all your effort, discipline and “self-improvement” only ever point inward, you haven’t improved anything that matters. Self improvement isn't improvement at all if it's just all about you.

A fit body, big muscles and heavy lifts are just fancy baubles without the strength of character to use them to make the world a better place.

Help someone move furniture, change a tyre at the roadside, help a parent lift a buggy on/off a train or up/down stairs, just be calm and present when someone vulnerable feels unsafe, carry shopping for someone, hold open a heavy door or gate. Even in the gym; spot someone, help them load/unload their equipment, commend their effort, even if how they train makes no sense to you. Especially then.

Carry the burden when others can't, support those that are struggling even if it seems small and insignificant. Do it for the person closest to you or a complete stranger. It all makes a difference. These days more than ever, when platforms like this one reward what looks impressive and what's easiest to show, but which is rarely what matters most.

Train to have the capability to help. Practice having the decency to try.